


I Wish I Could Be There Now

by ot5hugs



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Gen, Magic, Minor Swearing, OT5 Friendship, Terrible Witches, post zayn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-13 21:57:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5718568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ot5hugs/pseuds/ot5hugs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Months after Zayn leaves, Niall thinks he's found a way to bring him back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Wish I Could Be There Now

**Author's Note:**

> So this was something I've been thinking about a lot since I saw [this vine and read Jenn's tags](http://drownedindeniall.tumblr.com/post/135446404312/1dvinecentral-woah). It's stuck with me, and I hope I did it at least a little justice.
> 
> Lyrics are from What A Feeling by One Direction
> 
> 2018 EDIT: Jenn's blog is currently unavailable so [ here's another link](http://ot4hugs.tumblr.com/post/135558681730/1dvinecentral-woah) to the vine. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a way to recover her tags, but what I can remember will be in the end notes.

_With no way out and a long way down_

_Everybody needs someone around_

_But I can't hold you too close now_

_Through the wire, through the wire_

》》〉

Zayn wants to be alone.

That’s what he says shortly before leaving the band, so they all hold onto it as an excuse after. It’s what Niall keeps telling himself in the months after March 25. It’s why he doesn’t call or text. It’s why he deletes Zayn’s number from his phone—even though he can never delete it from his mind—and changes his number. He closes ranks with the remaining boys, missing Zayn in private or when the dull ache bleeds into the corners of his heart. And despite being stronger than ever, Niall can see the light dim in his bandmates eyes when they think no one’s looking. So he decides that this time, he’ll be the one to take care of them.

》》〉

The book is beat up and old, pages wrinkled in some places and stained in others. But immediately, the cracked green and silver spine calls to Niall from the back of the bookshop he’s hiding in. It feels warm to the touch, like it's actually a heating pad disguised in moldy binding, and it makes him all the more interested. He didn’t really come here to read; he only wanted to get away from life for a bit, clear his head, and maybe think of a plan to fix what has been broken. Settling in a lumpy chair, Niall thumbs through the book, unsure exactly of what he’s picked up. Pictures and symbols pass in a blur until he stops and realizes that the text is in two different languages- Latin in italics and, underneath, the English translation.

_A spellbook_.

It’s his first thought, one he quickly dismisses. The idea of magic is great and all that, but this is real life, and stuffing his head with literal wishful thinking isn’t the way to go about this. The book remains in his hands, however, curiosity about the true nature of it egging Niall on.

He misses texts and phone calls, completely enthralled with what he’s reasoned to be a historic relic, a document of the study of supposed witchcraft from centuries ago. He eats up paragraphs about familiars and curses, slows to savor the descriptions of the good spells and medicinal potions made for townspeople, and gently runs his finger over four words- _forever young, forever happy_.

Niall buys the book.

》》〉

“Whatcha got there, Nialler?”

It takes him a moment to tear his eyes away from the book to look up at Liam. The former looks curious, a soft smile on his face. Louis is nowhere to be seen, so maybe Niall can share his secret without it getting soaked or covered in food.

“Found a book the other day,” he says as Liam sits next to him on one of the backstage couches. “It’s like, a history of witchcraft or something.”

“Like Harry Potter?”

Niall shrugs. “Less wands, more words.”

“Sick. So you’re like, looking at spells?”

“Uh, yeah. You know, for fun and all that. I mean, it’s not real.”

“Yeah, of course.” Liam says. But there’s a sparkle in his eyes that urges Niall to reveal more.

“I’ve been looking at it for a while. There’s all sorts of stuff about like, manipulating time, staying young forever, potions and spells that’ll like, grant wishes.”

“Stay young forever?” Louis’ voice draws their attention to the doorway. “What’s that all about?”

“Niall’s found some medieval spellbook,” Liam chirps. “It’s wicked.”

Louis comes over and jumps on the couch, squeezing between the two of them and leaning against Niall so he can see the book. “This is like some Harry Potter shit you’re always on about, Payno.”

“I know!”

Niall looks between his two friends, a nervous smile on his face. He hasn’t seen them this excited about something in a while. “We should try one.”

Louis raises an eyebrow at him as Liam looks equally surprised.

Niall quickly averts his gaze, his hand going to his mouth. He mumbles against his fingers as he chews on the sides of his nails. “Or not…”

“Are you kidding?” A grin breaks out on Louis’ face. “Think of how sick that would be!”

“It won’t hurt, will it?” Liam looks interested in joining in on the fun but is understandably hesitant.

“Not sure. Guess it depends which one we pick.”

After a moment, Liam nods. “We should get Harry, though.”

“Good thinking.” Louis says, springing up from the couch. “His cushioned vampire cave will really set the mood.”

》》〉

“So… It’s like a real thing?” Harry looks at all of them slowly before his eyes settle on the book.

“Dunno,” Niall says. “Won’t know until we try.”

“There’s one for levitation. Seems harmless.”

Harry closes his book and slides down to sit on the floor. “Alright. Why not?”

Niall and Liam quickly plop down as well, while Louis darts around Harry’s dressing room, plucking candles from the tables.

“Why’ve you done that?”

“Spells need candles, Harold. Everyone knows that.”

They all nod, the logic making perfect sense, and try to make a circle with just the four of them. Niall situates the candles according to the illustration, squinting to make sure they’re doing it right. The last thing he wants is for something to go wrong; they can’t afford to be another man down.

Niall almost laughs as they join hands, the excitement bubbling in his stomach. He’s starting to believe that this is real, that they can do it. And if they can do it… well, let’s just say that making things float in the air isn’t the reason he bought the book.

Lights off and candles glowing, Niall reads the spell from the book, repeating it until everyone is chanting along with their eyes closed. He feels a cold wash over him the longer they go, and he focuses on it so hard that it takes a yelp from Harry to make him realize that they’re hovering off the ground. It’s not much, maybe an inch or so, but they’re _hovering_ and all Niall can think about is that the magic is real.

They all lurch forward at the same time, feeling an icy hand grip their throats. In a second, the quartet land back on their butts and wince, ending the chanting. The candles blow out on their own, leaving them in total darkness.

“Hey!”

The boys jump as a loud knock rips through the darkness- it’s their tour manager.

“Are you guys dicking around in there? Show starts in twenty; everyone’s looking for you!”

Hearts racing, they struggle to find their voices. Liam eventually manages to let him know that they’ll be there soon, listening intently for the sound of footsteps walking away. They sit in the dark for a moment longer before Harry gets up on shaky legs and flips on the light switch.

“Did it- did it work?” Louis breathes.

“I don’t know.” Niall can see that he’s shaking- he can hear it in his voice. Slowly, he picks up the spellbook and skims the passage to check for instructions. “Think we’re just supposed to concentrate hard. Imagine whatever it is floating.”

“ _We_ were floating, Niall.” Harry says as he makes his way back to them.

“I felt like someone was choking me.” Liam shakes his head, trying to reason with what happened.

Niall nods, indicating he felt it, too. Now that the initial shock is wearing off, he wants to know if it did work. Something happened; they had hovered and Niall’s head is still buzzing from it. His eyes dart around for something light to attempt to lift as the others murmur amongst themselves. Finally, he settles on a target, blocking out the sounds of voices and pages being turned as Liam flips through the spellbook.

“We should just get ready for the show.”

“But we were obviously doing something right,” Liam responds.

Louis agrees. “We should at least check and see if anything’s changed.”

Harry doesn’t look at them, his eyes moving between the candles and the book. “I don’t know.”

“It won’t hurt to try.”

“Yeah, we could just…”

Liam’s voice dies out as he stares at Harry, eyes widening. Louis’ jaw drops slightly as he stares, too. Harry freezes, now aware that his three friends can’t take their eyes off of him.

“What? What is it? Have I grown another head or something?”

But no one says anything; they just keep staring. Niall’s brow is furrowed, his concentration faltering as he registers the panic in Harry’s voice. Just before he breaks, he watches as Harry whips around to look in the mirror.

His hair is floating.

》》〉

At four in the morning, Liam and Harry are asleep in their bunks, leaving Niall and Louis in the back lounge of the bus. The spellbook is open face-down on Niall’s chest, his eyes studying the patterns on the ceiling as he thinks about all that’s happened. Louis is half-asleep, arms resting on top of Niall’s legs on his lap. Niall sits up slightly; he can tell Louis isn’t completely asleep, so he gently digs his heel into his friend’s thigh.

“Hm?”

“Need to tell you something.”

Louis’ eyes open at the tone of Niall’s voice. “What’s got you?”

“It’s the book.”

“What about it?”

“I mean, like, it works... “ Niall’s unsure how to word what he wants to say, so he lets the excitement return, pushing through Louis’ sleepiness.

“I know, mate! I made Harry’s boot fly halfway across the bus!” His eyes crinkle, an air of slight disbelief still surrounding him.

“Yeah. Like, it’s weird, yeah?” Niall sits up completely, his shoulder pressed against Louis’. One arm is crossed over his chest while the other rests on it, his fingers nervously twiddling with his hair. “I didn’t think it was real when I got it.”

“Don’t blame ya. Sounds like a load of shit.”

“But it isn’t.”

“Nope…” As if to remind himself of the fact, Louis makes a bottle of water approach them from a table; they’re all relatively good at it now after having spent the time after the show practicing. “So, what are you gonna do with the book now?”

Niall shrugs, trying to look noncommittal. “Maybe just look through it or something. If this one works, the others should, too.”

Louis’ nod is stiff. Niall knows his oldest friend has seen right through him, but he remains quiet. The spellbook is sitting to Niall’s right, waiting for him to do what he’s been wanting to do since he bought it.

“Why’d you buy the book, Niall?”

Another shrug. “Just wanted to get away for a bit. Have something that wasn’t real.”

“But now it is real,” Louis says slowly. “So what do you really want?”

Niall wipes his sweaty palms on his jeans before licking his lips. “It was just a thought at first, like wishful thinking and all that. I saw the words and it just- clicked. I wanted to believe it, you know?”

“Believe what?”

Niall picks up the book and flips to the page that made him buy the book in the first place. His finger taps on what he’s dubbed as the “Forever Young” spell before allowing Louis to take the book from him. The Peter Pan comparisons made amongst the fans are not for nothing; Louis visibly perks up as he reads through it. Part one is complete, Niall thinks. Part two, well, that’ll be a little harder.

“You wanna try this?” Louis is wide-eyed and looks like he could go out and do another show.

“Yeah, but not on its own.”

“Combining spells? Sounds dangerous.” It’s an observation, not a warning.

“I think it could work.”

“Alright; I’m with you. What’s the other spell?”

Niall turns to face Louis, careful to make sure he gets his intentions out clearly. “There’s one to like, grant wishes. If it works, the five of us can stay young forever.”

The walls go up. Louis’ muscles tense and he crosses his arms, head tilted away from Niall. “Your math is off, mate.” The word “mate” is forceful and deliberate- he only has three friends now.

“Louis, listen to me. It doesn’t have to be like this. If I make the wish so that Zayn’s with us, I can do the Forever Young spell and send us back to when everything was okay. And we can stay like that- stay happy forever.”

“It’s not gonna change that fact that he left.” Louis’ voice is strained.

“But if we go back, technically he hasn’t. And we’ll never have to worry about the band splitting up! If we just stay in like, 2013 forever, everything’ll be okay.”

Louis looks at Niall, a firm "no" on his face. The latter can see it, and his face involuntarily drops a fraction. Simultaneously, he can see the sharp edges of Louis’ bitterness soften.

“Like it never happened?”

Niall nods.

“And we’ll all be together? No one leaves?”

“”Forever young, forever happy.”” He quotes.

Louis concedes, and Niall springs into action. He first wakes Liam and Harry to inform them of the plan. Harry needs a little convincing, but if Louis is on board, they all are. Niall reads off what they need: more candles, something of Zayn’s to specify their wish, a picture from the time they want to go back to, and a cocktail of ingredients they managed to find on the bus and in a meditation kit Harry had been gifted. When they get back into the circular formation, there’s a tense buzz between them. Niall doesn’t know if it’s the magic or just their heightened emotions, but he can’t stop to think about it; he wants to do this before anyone has any second thoughts.

Reading from the book, he notices a smudge of ink in the “Forever Young” spell. The sentence seems to have a logical flow, however, so he dismisses it as one of the many ink stains and continues on. Once they have the two short chants down, the boys join hands once again. Niall uses Louis’ lighter to burn a t-shirt of Zayn’s that they had found (a plain white one that Niall immediately recognizes as the one he wore in Hong Kong- his last show in One Direction), watching as the flames grow and slowly devour the fabric. As it does, he can feel a warmth start in his core, similar to the cold he felt for the previous spell. He glances at everyone to be sure they’re okay and notices they’re trying to focus on the words being said rather than the sweat raining down from their bodies.

Niall can feel the tug in his soul; a few more seconds and it’ll be done. Zayn will be back, and they’ll never have to lose him again.

》》〉

The loud snap of burning wood is what brings Niall back. He momentarily panics, thinking they got too into the spell and the bus is now on fire. Jumping out of his seat, he’s ready to bolt out with the boys before realizing something important- he’s not on the bus; he’s in the woods.

“You alright, Niall?”

The heavy accent forces Niall to calm down and look to his right. “Zayn?”

“Course, mate. Did you fall asleep?” Zayn chuckles and gently tugs on Niall’s arm to get him to sit down again. “Think you all zoned out for a bit.”

Niall slowly sinks back into his fold up chair before Zayn’s words set in. Frantically, he looks to the others, who all appear to have just gone through the same thing he did.

“How did we get here?” Harry asks.

“We’ve been here the whole time.” Zayn responds. He looks a little concerned now. “Camping trip, remember?”

“Harry…” Louis is staring at the area around Harry’s head.

“What? Not again…” His hands fly up to his hair to find that there’s a lot less of it. “Holy shit…”

“It worked,” Liam squeaks out.

Then it sets in and all eyes are on Zayn.

“Is it really you?”

Zayn raises an eyebrow at Louis. “Course it’s me. Who else would I be?”

No one answers his question. Instead, they abandon their seats and clamber over each other and around the bonfire to dogpile on Zayn. He can barely get out any words between the murmurs of “thank god”, “love you”, and “holy crap”. Niall feels himself pillowed between Zayn and Harry, his face in the former’s neck. He tilts his head up so that he can be heard over what now sounds like crying.

“We did it, Zayno.”

“Did what?”

“We brought you back. Now we don’t have to be apart.”

Zayn manages to wiggle his hand so that it rests on whatever part of Niall’s back he can reach. Niall holds back tears at the feeling of Zayn’s fingers attempting to comfort him.

“‘M not going anywhere, Nialler.”

“I know,” he says thickly. “Forever young, yeah?”

Zayn chuckles. “An eternity of fucking shit up with you lot?” He pretends to consider it for a second before grinning. “Yeah, that sounds pretty good.”

》》〉

It’s dark when Zayn leaves the tent. It’s always dark here. He grabs a sharp rock and scrapes it against another, adding a thin white line to a collection of hundreds more before sighing and reaching up to rub his beard. It’s getting too long, he thinks; there’s at least an inch of hair to get through before his fingers reach his chin. But he’s yet to find anything in this forest that will give him any sort of shave, so he’s stuck like this for now.

The fire continues to burn- it hasn’t stopped since he got here. There’s nothing for Zayn to do but sit by and watch it. He doesn’t need to eat or drink or sleep, but he does the last thing to keep himself sane as he can’t stand to watch the fire for too long. Sleeping gives him a brief relief from this place, time to not think about the fact that his white t-shirt always smells like smoke and that he can never change out of it.

He sits on a log, rubbing the sleep from his face before looking into the flames. He sees his boys laughing and running on some beach; a lads holiday, he assumes. And there he is— well, a younger version of himself— laughing with them before teaming up with Louis to tackle Harry to the sand. Niall throws back his head, laughing so hard that his face turns red and he has to hold his stomach. Liam claps before helping Harry up and dusting the sand from his curly quiff. Everyone looks happy and free, and the five of them soon end up in a tangled pile, watching the few clouds glide across the baby blue sky.

Zayn watches scenes like this everyday. Some days they have a show, sometimes they go home, but most of the time they just stay together because they have forever for everything else. No one’s leaving, no one’s growing up, and no one has any idea that they’ve made a mistake.

He continues to age, watching them and counting the days until they realize what they've done and save him from this weird hell dimension. And he is alone, just like they thought he wanted, even though he wants nothing more than to be with his best friends.

**Author's Note:**

> This wasn't edited or beta'ed, so there might be some mistakes.
> 
> 2018 EDIT: Basically, Jenn's tags were about the boys using magic to bring Zayn back but they unknowingly mess up and trap present day Zayn in some strange hell dimension, which is what happens here in case it wasn't clear.


End file.
